Mustang – Syndication Server

Mustang and Corvette set to square off in deep pool of GT competition

The class structure of global sports car racing is constantly evolving. But the emergence and refinement of the FIA-homologated GT3 platform over nearly 20 years has stabilized production-based classes and created the opportunity for convergence between the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the FIA World Endurance Championship and many other series using GT3 race cars around the world.

The worldwide accessibility and appeal of GT3 has convinced Chevrolet and Ford to join the fray with factory-supported racing versions of the Corvette and Mustang. The Corvette Z06 GT3.R was revealed during 2023 Rolex 24 At Daytona festivities and has been in development with Corvette Racing partner team Pratt Miller Motorsports for the last year. Ford, meanwhile, unveiled the Mustang GT3 roughly six months later at the 100th anniversary celebration of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Both cars will make their worldwide competition debut later this month in the 62nd Rolex 24.

Mustang and Corvette are joining a deep pool with nine other FIA-homologated GT3 cars that will compete in IMSA’s GTD and GTD PRO classes: Acura NSX Evo, Aston Martin Vantage, BMW M4, Ferrari 296, Lamborghini Huracán EVO2, Lexus RC F, McLaren 720S Evo, Mercedes-AMG and Porsche 911 (992).

Because the GT3 category emphasizes Pro-Am driver lineups, the cars are deliberately “user friendly,” with driver aids including traction control and antilock brakes. Through Balance of Performance adjustments, cars are designed to weigh between 1,200 and 1,300kg (2,645-2,866 pounds); power is regulated to 500 to 600hp and each car must meet specific drag-versus-downforce specifications.

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Modern Corvettes and Mustangs require remarkably little modification to be transformed into racing cars. In fact, high-end production versions of both cars feature more powerful engines than their GT3 racing counterparts!

Like every Corvette, the GT3.R is built up from an aluminum chassis produced at Chevrolet’s Bowling Green Assembly plant in Kentucky. The 5.5-liter flat plane crankshaft DOHC V-8 engine — designated LT6 — also originates from the Performance Build Center in southern Kentucky. The racing version of the LT6 shares 70 percent of its components with the standard Z06 engine that originates on the same line. Pratt Miller then fabricates the integrated steel roll cage and side intrusion safety features.

As with the production Z06, the Corvette GT3.R utilizes double wishbone suspension, adding racing-specific springs, dampers and brake components. The racing car features a six-speed sequential transaxle rather than dual clutch eight-speed in the stock Z06.

The Mustang GT3 starts its life on Ford’s Flat Rock, Michigan, assembly plant before being modified for racing by Multimatic Motorsports. The 5.4-liter V8 engine is an enlarged version of the stock Mustang GT’s 5.0-liter “Coyote” powerplant developed by Ford Performance and M-Sport, which is Ford’s longtime World Rally Championship partner.

Aside from the wild carbon fiber bodywork punctuated by an enormous rear wing, the most notable difference between the GT3 and Mustangs for the road is the rear-mounted transaxle with six-speed sequential shift. Multimatic also contributes proprietary dampers and bespoke short-long arm suspension.

North American sports car racing fans will see seven of the new American GT3 machines on the 2024 WeatherTech Championship grid, highlighted by factory-backed two-car efforts from Chevrolet and Ford in the GTD PRO class. Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports will field the Nos. 3 and 4 Corvettes in a familiar yellow livery, while Ford Multimatic Motorsports’ entries are Nos. 64 and 65. In addition, AWA will represent Corvette in the GTD class with the Nos. 13 and 17 cars for the full season, with Proton Competition slated to enter the No. 55 Mustang in select events.

With Mustang and Corvette street cars now available for sale around the world, Ford and Chevrolet will also have an international racing presence with their new GT3 contenders. Proton Competition has entered two Mustangs in the WEC, against competition including a pair of Corvettes prepared by TF Sport.

“Mustang is our icon,” said Mark Rushbrook, global director of Ford Performance Motorsport. “We are excited about 2024 for Mustangs in total and what they can do, but especially here in the WeatherTech (Championship) at the GTD PRO level.”

“Our goal is to have Corvettes racing around the world,” added Laura Wontrop Klauser, GM sports car racing program manager. “Our IMSA GTD PRO team is taking the lead on optimizing the running of the car so we can lift all teams to higher performance.”

The Corvette GT3.R and Mustang GT3 will make their official on-track debuts at the Roar Before the Rolex 24, the three-day test session Jan. 19-21 at Daytona International Speedway that also includes qualifying for the Rolex 24, which runs Jan. 27-28 on the same 3.56-mile road course.

Ford Performance fills out global Mustang GT3 factory driver squad

Adding to the previously announced full-time IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship squads of Joey Hand/Dirk Müller and Harry Tincknell/Mike Rockenfeller, Ford Performance has announced five more drivers that will make up the factory team of drivers for GT3 programs around the world. Ben Barker, Chris Mies, Dennis Olsen, Andy Priaulx and Frédéric Vervisch will be deployed to Ford’s factory and customer teams in global GT3 competition.

Mies and Vervisch will drive the new Mustang GT3 at the Rolex 24 At Daytona and are getting seat time in the car at Daytona today. Mies will join Tincknell and Rockenfeller in the No. 64 Mustang, with Vervisch stepping into the No. 65 with Hand and Müller. Both cars will compete in the GTD PRO category, run by Multimatic Motorsports. That will be the first of many races in the first year of the Mustang GT3, as teams contest the FIA World Endurance Championship and GT World Challenge Europe as well.

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“This is such an important and special year for Mustang — it will celebrate its 60th anniversary and we take Mustang racing globally,” said Mark Rushbrook, Global Director of Ford Performance Motorsports. “To take an icon like Mustang racing, we need a lineup of the best and most experienced GT racers, and our nine sports car factory drivers represent just that.

“Together with our partners at Multimatic Motorsports and our first customer teams Proton Competition and Dinamic GT, we are ready to take on the best in the world at the most iconic race circuits. I can’t wait to get started at Daytona in January.”

Ford’s group of nine sports car factory drivers will bring their endurance racing experience and knowledge to the various Mustang GT3 programs around the world. With teams slated to go racing in the three series previously mentioned and plans for more race series later in 2024, the sports car factory drivers are available to all of Ford’s customer teams, which so far include Proton Competition and Dinamic GT, subject to scheduling. The full driver lineups for these programs will be announced by the customer teams next year.

British driver Barker has competed regularly in WEC and GTWC-E, in addition to taking four class wins at the Bathurst 12 Hours. German racer Mies is a double ADAC GT Masters champion, a double winner of the Bathurst 12 Hour and also boasts two victories in the Nürburgring 24 Hours. Olsen has spent the past two years in DTM. He also has an Intercontinental GT Challenge Championship victory under his belt.

Priaulx is best known for his three FIA World Touring Car championships, but he has also been part of the Ford and Multimatic Motorsports family since 2016 when he signed up to race alongside Tincknell in the Ford GT in WEC. Since the GT program concluded in 2019, he has been immersed with Multimatic, working on a number of special projects. He will act as a “super sub” and will be a pillar of knowledge in this factory squad. Belgian driver Vervisch, has been winning since the start of his career. He is also a two-time Nürburgring 24 Hours winner and a multi-championship winner in his Formula 3 career.

The Rolex 24 At Daytona will mark the competition debut of the Mustang GT3, the first GT3 car produced by Ford in conjunction with Multimatic.

Ford unveils the Mustang GT3 at Le Mans

Against the backdrop of the world’s most famous endurance race, Ford Performance today fully unveiled the highly anticipated Mustang GT3 a year from the company’s return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. “Ford and Le Mans are bound together by history,” …

“Ford and Le Mans are bound together by history,” said Ford Motor Company CEO Jim Farley. “And now we’re coming back to the most dramatic, most rewarding and most important race in the world. It is not Ford versus Ferrari anymore. It is Ford versus everyone. Going back to Le Mans is the beginning of building a global motorsports business with Mustang, just like we are doing with Bronco and Raptor off-road.”

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While Ford is eager to repeat past success at Le Mans, experienced most recently in 2016 with the GT but going back to its string of victories in the late ’60s with the GT40, it’s the convergence of sports car GT racing under the GT3 platform in 2024 — where GT3 cars can compete at Le Mans and in the World Endurance Championship, the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, SRO’s GT World Challenge series around the world and numerous other championships and races — that has driven Ford to jump into the ever-growing GT3 pool.

“It has come about for a lot of different reasons,” explained Mark Rushbrook, Global Director at Ford Performance Motorsports, ahead of the unveiling. “Part of it is internal to our company, and the way that we’re able to value motorsports in new and different ways than before. But also, it’s a lot of what’s happened in the racing world, especially in sports car racing. And with the convergence of the GT classes, we can with one car, one designed and one homologated car, race it globally.

“In factory racing, in IMSA, where it’s appropriate to do it, but around the rest of the world — in series like WEC, including Le Mans, SRO — we can race in true customer racing, getting Mustangs out there for customer teams to compete with. That is great for us, because Mustang is one of our icons. It is a halo for us in many ways. And as we’ve committed to the seventh-generation Mustang for the for the road with a full lineup of vehicles, we’re doing the same thing on the racetrack.”

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Based on the Mustang Dark Horse, the performance pinnacle of the 2024 Mustang lineup, the Mustang GT3 has been developed in conjunction with Multimatic, which will run the car in IMSA GTD PRO competition while Proton Competition campaigns the car in WEC. Development of the 5.4-liter Coyote V8 engine has been carried out by M-Sport, Ford’s partner in the World Rally Championship. The Mustang GT3 features revised engine placement, a bespoke short-long arm suspension, a rear-mounted transaxle, carbon fiber body panels, and a unique aero package. One of the standout elements of that aero package is the swan-neck mount for the rear wing that mounts to the car midway between the rear and the roof.

“It’s very good functionally, to tie into some good structure and provide clean airflow. But it’s also very striking from a visual perspective,” Rushbrook, told RACER, adding on to some other technical elements of the car.

“The fender vents, the way the air is channeled to flow — not just over the car and under the car, but through the car to efficiently get the drag and downforce targets that we need to hit, but also the cooling requirements. And then it’s taking that great Coyote naturally aspirated V8 engine, working with M-Sport as a great engine partner to develop that and hit the power targets that we need to be competitive in the class.

“We’re able to get the engine in the race car a little bit lower, a little bit further rearward to give it better inertia characteristics, lower center of gravity, and reduce the yaw inertia as well. So it’s really working with Multimatic as a great vehicle engineering partner to optimize every system, every component in the car for optimum performance on the track.”

The Mustang GT3 was presented in a colorful Troy Lee-designed livery, complete with new Ford Performance branding that will be featured on all the company’s racing vehicles. Rushbrook says that while Ford Performance doesn’t expect teams to copy the livery, they would love for them to take some common elements from it.

In addition to Proton and Multimatic running the car in their respective championships, Ford Performance hopes to see the car in customers’ hands competing across the world, and the company has fielded inquiries from teams wishing to campaign the car in a variety of championships and races. Rushbrook said the intent is to supply as many cars as demand dictates.

Joining the Mustang GT3, which will make its competition debut at the 2024 Rolex 24 At Daytona, the Mustang Dark Horse will also form the basis of a new GT4 car as well as spawn two other track-only versions, the R and S.

Oklahoma earns commitment from 4-star Athlete Jacobe Johnson

The Oklahoma Sooners earned a commitment from top 3 player in the state of Oklahoma, Jacobe Johnson.

The long-awaited decision of the No. 2 prospect in the state of Oklahoma has come to pass as Jacobe Johnson has committed to the Oklahoma Sooners. The four-star athlete, who projects to play cornerback for Brent Venables and the Sooners, was also considering Alabama, Michigan State, Oklahoma State, and Stanford.

Standing at 6-foot-3, Johnson is a towering figure that will give wide receivers fits on the outside. His ability to attack the ball in the air, combined with his size, will make him a difficult matchup in the Big 12 and the Sooners’ future home in the SEC.

Johnson displays excellent play recognition and can change assignments on the fly when in zone coverage. His ability as a wide receiver lends Johnson to making plays on the football as a defender. He’s a natural hands catcher that allows him to come down with interceptions. He’s more than willing in run support and is disciplined in maintaining outside leverage when blocked. Johnson does a great job working through blocks and finding the ball carrier.

Johnson joins fellow cornerback Jasiah Wagoner in the Sooners 2023 recruiting class, which now ranks No. 7 after LSU added a couple of commitments recently. The Sooners are still well within striking distance of a top-five recruiting class, less than five points behind Georgia for No. 5.

With Jacobe Johnson now in the fold, commitment watch now begins for fellow cornerback Makari Vickers, wide receiver Anthony Evans, and five-star defensive tackle David Hicks.

Jacobe Johnson’s Recruiting Profile

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Oklahoma Sooners receive crystal ball projection from Oklahoma State 247Sports Insider

The Sooners received another projection in favor of landing one of the top players in the state of Oklahoma, four-star ATH Jacobe Johnson.

After several quiet months surrounding the recruitment of four-star athlete Jacobe Johnson, the Oklahoma Sooners received another crystal ball projection to land the Mustang, Oklah. product.

While the previous projections came from OUInsiders Parker Thune and Brandon Drumm, and 247Sports National Recruiting Director Steve Wiltfong, this one comes from someone that covers the Oklahoma State Cowboys for GoPokes.com, Cody Nagel.

Nagel’s prediction is moderately confident that Oklahoma will land the athletic Jacobe Johnson. At this point, the Sooners own 100% of the Rivals‘ future casts, four crystal ball predictions from 247Sports, and On3’s Recruiting Prediction Machine gives Oklahoma an 86.3%.

It seems that the Oklahoma Sooners are closing in on a commitment for Johnson who also is considering Alabama and Michigan quite heavily as well. Brent Venables is no stranger to big-time recruiting battles, winning his fair share when he was the defensive coordinator at Clemson.

Nothing’s over until the player signs on the dotted line on National Signing Day, but the Sooners might have this commitment right where they want it.

Jacobe Johnson’s Recruiting Profile

Crystal Ball

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